BirdLife releases minutes where FKNK agree to afternoon hunting ban
BirdLife Malta has released the minutes of the Ornis Committee meeting held in February 2009, where the FKNK proposed a conditional ban on autumn hunting after 3 p.m. between September 15 and 30.
The FKNK had proposed the ban on condition that the government opened the spring hunting season.
The minutes, as amended by the FKNK’s member Joe Perici Calascione on the Ornis Committee, for the meeting held 26 Feb 2009, proposes a hunting and trapping season for turtledove and quail from the 15th April to the 15th May, a daily bag limit of 10 birds per hunter and trapper, capped at 60,000 turtle doves and 40,000 quails, another hunting and trapping season between the 15th September to 31st October, “with no hunting permitted after 3pm on and between the 15th September and the 30th September included.
Dr Andre Raine, BirdLife Malta’s Conservation Manager, said: “The minutes unequivocally show that the FKNK thought the ban was a good idea when they were lobbying for a spring hunting season. Now, however, they are denying this fact, possibly because they do not want their members to know that they actually agreed to the afternoon ban.”
The last fortnight of September, when the ban on afternoon hunting will be in place, coincides with the peak migration period for raptors (birds of prey).
“The ban is necessary to protect these birds which are especially vulnerable after arriving in Malta during September. The birds spend hours in the late afternoon looking for a safe roosting site to spend the night, before making the long crossing over the Mediterranean to Africa in the morning. They also congregate in a few known areas, increasing their vulnerability to poaching,” Raine said.
“Raptors are less vulnerable in the morning as they leave their roost sites, often under cover of darkness, and head straight out to sea. Anyone who has any knowledge of bird behaviour and migration will know that this is fact,” Dr Raine added.
BirdLife Malta questioned why the FKNK were so adamant to allow hunting when these prized birds were at their most vulnerable. The conservation organisation alone received 59 shot protected birds during the last autumn hunting season.
“If the FKNK were so concerned about law-abiding hunters, it would protect their interests by ensuring those who break the law have their membership withdrawn. We have yet to see any evidence of the ‘zero tolerance’ the federation keeps trumpeting about,” Dr Raine said.
